Brain and cognitive sciences

Shedding light on a longstanding puzzleStudy of blind children in India helps answer a 300-year-old philosophical question.

Tenenbaum wins Troland AwardNational Academy of Science award honors young investigators.

Re-creating autism, in miceMice with a particular gene mutation avoid interacting with other mice and show compulsive, repetitive behavior.

Parts of brain can switch functionsIn people born blind, brain regions that usually process vision can tackle language.

Wordly wisdomWhat determines the length of words? MIT researchers say they know.

What blame can tell us about autismNeuroscientists find evidence that autistic patients have trouble understanding other people’s intentions.

A clearer picture of visionNew mathematical model of information processing in the brain accurately predicts some of the peculiarities of human vision.

Illuminating the brainNeuroscientists’ new technique can stimulate brain cells, then reveal how those neurons influence the rest of the brain.

6 from MIT named AAAS fellows

Understanding the anesthetized brainNeuroscientist Emery Brown hopes to shed light on a longstanding medical mystery: how general anesthesia works.

7 win presidential early career honorsMIT has greatest number of recipients from a single institution.

Brain control

Younger brains are easier to rewireStudy of blind patients supports the idea that there is a period early in a person’s development when brain regions can switch functions.

Feng Zhang, expert on genetic control of brain function, to join BCS faculty

Protein linked to aging may boost memory and learning abilityDiscovery could lead to new drugs to fight Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

Postdoc awarded Otto Hahn medal of the Max Planck SocietyHonored for thesis on neural correlates of visual illusions

Guoping Feng, expert on synapses and psychiatric disorders, joins MIT faculty

McGovern Institute video wins Telly AwardGiven top honors in fundraising category

Multitasking is no problem for these brain cellsScientists find that neurons in the brain’s planning center can handle more than one kind of job.

Earl Miller wins MERIT award from National Institute of Mental HealthNational Institute of Mental Health

How the brain recognizes objectsA new computational model sheds light on the workings of the human visual system and could help advance artificial-intelligence research, too.

Laser Show and ‘Big Ideas’ kick off 2010 Cambridge Science FestivalMore than 200 events for the public April 24 through May 2

Six from MIT elected to AAAS

Moral judgments can be altered ... by magnetsBy disrupting brain activity in a particular region, neuroscientists can sway people’s views of moral situations.

A grand unified theory of AIA new approach unites two prevailing but often opposed strains in the history of artificial-intelligence research.

NIMH Director Tom Insel on AutismHosted by the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain at MIT

No harm, no foulStudy of moral judgment finds that patients with a specific brain defect lack the emotional reaction necessary to find fault with attempted murderers

A change of mindOne protein appears to control neurons’ ability to react to new experiences, MIT scientists show.

McGovern Institute to acquire new brain imaging technology